


Entangled

by teleprophetic



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, M/M, dork boys and christmas fluff, i don't even know tbh, takes place in the future after university, this came from an "imagine your icon post"
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-11
Updated: 2014-12-11
Packaged: 2018-03-01 00:57:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2753618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teleprophetic/pseuds/teleprophetic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hide and Kaneki get a christmas tree. Kaneki tries to decorate. Hide gets an early christmas present.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Entangled

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in about half an hour. Inspired by [this post](http://imagineyouricon.co.vu/post/104695552019/imagine-your-icon-getting-tangled-in-christmas) (my icon is Kaneki). I just wanted to write something happy for my favorite boys. They deserve some happiness after all they've been through.

Kaneki stared at the mass of pine needles in front of him, hands on his hips.

The hard part was over. The tree was standing proudly in its stand and its branches had filled out again after a few hours out of the ropes that had held it so tightly before.

It had taken him and Hide at least two hours to wrestle the thing through the door of their apartment; thankfully their landlady hadn’t been home. Kaneki had been against getting the tree; he had wanted something smaller and more manageable, maybe four feet tall at most. Hide had insisted on this one though, claiming that it had called to him and that maybe it would help Kaneki get into the holiday spirit for once. It took a lot of convincing, since Kaneki wasn’t one for celebrating holidays, but Hide was stubborn, and soon enough it was tied to the roof of their small car. It had been a pain, but seeing the smile on Hide’s face had been enough for Kaneki.

And now he wanted to surprise his boyfriend. Kaneki knew he wasn’t always the most festive person and he wanted to make it up to his long-suffering partner. Having just come back form the store, he placed his plastic bags on the floor next to the tree and headed to the closet. Since the tree was so much larger than their previous ones, the brunette had had to go out and buy an extra strand of lights and some more ornaments. He pulled out their old Christmas lights from the box they were kept in and padded back into their small living room. It wasn’t exactly a room, since their apartment had an open floor plan, but it was close enough. Looking at the tree from the end of the hallway, Kaneki was truly amazed that it had even fit through the door; there was barely enough room to move around and the tree completely blocked the TV. Now was the fun part though.

Kaneki was already on vacation; his boss had given him the whole week off because he had been such a good employee that year. Hide on the other hand had one more day of work; this evening when he came home they would both be on vacation. So Kaneki wanted to take the opportunity to surprise his partner.

Pulling the new decorations from the bags, Kaneki sorted through them. He put the ornaments on the coffee table; they came after the lights. Then he turned to the other bag, tearing the lights out of their package and he took the two strands over to the tree.

It was then that he realized, as he stared up at the towering pine, that the tree was much too tall for him to reach the top without assistance. He dropped the lights and jogged to the kitchen to pull a chair next to the monstrous pine. Scooping the lights up again, he stepped up onto the chair, which wobbled a little underneath his feet. Steadying himself, he took the first strand into his hands. After so long lying in the closet, the strand was very tangled, and it took all of his effort to unknot the wire. Kaneki wrestled with the knots, careful not to break any of the lights as he let the unraveled part fall around his feet. It took much longer than he expected; the knots were complicated and very tight.

There! He had finally gotten to the plug at the end. What he hadn’t noticed though, is that the lights were now completely chaotically curled around him. When Kaneki realized this, he tried to take a step back on the chair, but his feet were tangled and he felt himself tip backwards. In that moment before falling, the brunette swore never to decorate the tree by himself again.

Then he was falling through the air, yelling in shock. He felt the chair tip sideways as his feet left the wooden surface and he unconsciously let go of the new strand of lights as he fell, the neat wire unraveling easily in the air. Landing with a crash, the brunette’s scream was cut off with an “oof” as his breath whooshed out of him. He could feel the tiny lights digging into his skin through his clothes; he could only hope he hadn’t smashed any of them. He lay there for a while, catching his breath. The second strand of lights had landed in a heap on top of him, and he pushed them off with what little arm movement he had wrapped up in Christmas lights. Instead of the strand itself being jumbled, the lights were now impossibly tangled around him, rendering his legs practically immobile and severely hindering his upper body movement.

Wiggling against the carpet, the brunette tried to loosen the lights, but it seemed like they had gotten even tighter when he fell. He was stuck. This was a disaster. All he had wanted to do was surprise Hide by being festive, and he ended up like this. At least Hide would be home soon. Twisting his upper body to look at the clock on the wall, Kaneki sighed in relief. Getting the lights had taken longer than expected; it was 4:36 pm. Hide usually came home around 5:45, depending on how crowded the train was. As long as it wasn’t too busy, he had less than hour to wait.

The brunette tried sitting up, but it was too difficult without his arms to help. So, pulling his knees up to his chin, Kaneki curled up to wait for his boyfriend.

_____________________________________________

Hide grumbled as he climbed the stairs to his and Kaneki’s apartment. It was too tiring in his opinion, having to climb all the way to the fifth floor. He hoped the landlady would get someone to fix the elevator soon.

Reaching the top, the blonde went to the door, smiling as he put his hand on the knob. He was finally done with work and now he could relax for the holidays. Pushing the door open, Hide stepped inside.

“Kaneki, I’m home!” he called, toeing off his shoes quickly, eager to see his boyfriend after such a tedious day at work.

“Hide! I’m in the living room! Can you come help me?” he called, excitement and relief flooding his voice. His limbs felt stiff after lying on the floor for so long and he wanted desperately to sit up and get something to eat.

“Huh? Yeah sure, what’s up?” the blonde asked, walking into the kitchen. From there he could see most of the living room, save for what was blocked by the couch that created the border between the two halves of the room, yet Hide couldn’t see the brunette. Concerned, he hesitated. “Kaneki? Where are you?” he called, running his eyes over the room again to see if he had missed the brunette.

“I’m on the other side of the couch,” Kaneki replied, praying the blonde would hurry up. The lights were digging into his skin uncomfortably.

Hide ran over as worry flooded through him. Was Kaneki injured? Is that why he hadn’t come to greet the blonde like usual?

Reaching the living room, the blonde’s eyes darted around, landing on the brunette after a moment. His first reaction was confusion. What was Kaneki doing curled up on the floor? But then he saw the ornaments on the table, and he noticed the strand of lights wrapped around the brunette and he realized what had happened. A laugh bubbled up from his chest, part in relief and part at the hilarity of the sight of Kaneki tangled in Christmas lights on the floor. Doubling over, the blonde put his hands on his knees, laughing uncontrollably.

“Hide, it’s not funny,” the brunette said indignantly, pouting up at the blonde.

After another few seconds of laughing, Hide was able to speak. “Yes it is. Kaneki, how in the world did you manage to get like this? That must’ve taken some serious effort,” said the blonde with another light chuckle, wiping tears from his eyes. A thought struck the blonde and he grinned, his eyes sparkling mischievously. “Oh I know, you were trying to wrap yourself up for me, weren’t you? My my, Kaneki, so kinky,” he said, his grin widening as he winked at the tangled brunette beneath him.

The brunette’s eyes widened and he shook his head quickly. “No I wasn’t, I was just trying to decorate the tree. I wanted to surprise you, since you really like Christmas and well…” he trailed off, looking away from the brown eyes that stared down at him so impishly.

Hide's grin softened into a smile as he realized what Kaneki was telling him. Lowering himself to the carpet, the blonde knelt next to his entangled partner. “Really? You went through all this trouble just for me?” he asked, his smile warming his brown eyes.

“Y-yeah. Well you always seem kind of sad that I don’t really put in effort for Christmas, even though you really like it, so I wanted to do something to make you happy, but it didn’t really work…” finished the brunette dejectedly, blushing lightly as his lips pulled down at the corners. All he had wanted was to decorate the tree, but now the surprise was ruined. He had really messed it up this time too, and now the blonde was going to laugh at him again.

But to his surprise, he felt hands on his shoulders. He looked up again as Hide pulled him up from the floor and wrapped his arms around him tightly, his eyes widening. His partner’s blonde hair tickled the side of his neck, but he relaxed into the embrace as best he could in his situation.

It was then that Kaneki heard two faint words in his ear, whispered with so much love and gratitude that he almost choked up. “Thanks Ken,” Hide whispered, squeezing the brunette a little tighter. Despite the fact that his boyfriend had ended up tangled in a heap of string lights, this is probably the happiest Hide felt all year. It was the thought that counted after all, and Kaneki had gone through all that trouble just to make him happy. The blonde was almost overcome with emotion. Somehow the brunette made him fall more and more in love every day. Hide didn’t know how he did it. Even after so many years, the Kaneki still managed to make his heart beat faster.

Kaneki was still tangled up though, and Hide wasn’t about to let the opporitunity slide. Pulling his head back enough to whisper into the brunette’s ear, the blonde grinned. “Now, I think it’s time I unwrap my present, hmmm Kaneki?” he murmured into his ear, his warm breath making the brunette shiver.

Without waiting for an answer, the blonde tackled Kaneki to the ground, arms wrapping around his waist and lips moving to steal a kiss from the helpless brunette, the tree standing long since forgotten in the corner.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!  
> You can find me on tumblr [here](http://k-o-z-u-m-e.tumblr.com) if you want to talk about hidekane or anything tokyo ghoul. My ask box is always open!


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